Frederich LowenbergSept. 14, 1753 - Jan. 20, 1845
Special thanks to a few of my ancestors:
Private Johannes "Long John" Bitler - Berks County Militia
Private Frederich Lowenberg - Pennsylvania Line
Colonel Michael Lindenmuth - Commander, 4th Battalion Berks Cty. Militia
Drummer Michael Lindenmuth, Jr.
Captain Conrad Minnich - Brunswick Militia Company
Private Johannes Rumpel - 3rd Battalion Northampton Cty. Militia
Private Frederich Lowenberg - Pennsylvania Line
Colonel Michael Lindenmuth - Commander, 4th Battalion Berks Cty. Militia
Drummer Michael Lindenmuth, Jr.
Captain Conrad Minnich - Brunswick Militia Company
Private Johannes Rumpel - 3rd Battalion Northampton Cty. Militia
A while back a few folks, including Fr. Ray Blake, wondered what is it re: American Catholics and the right to keep and bear arms.
I can only say that the vast majority of us are descended from people for whom somewhere else wasn't good enough. i.e. either they felt constrained by social strictures for lack of opportunity for upward mobility, or even more importantly, had been deprived some basic freedom in the "old country." Having come to America - often with great trial and tribulations attendant with such a move - they were determined not to give up a hard won freedom easily.
Many came because of religious persecution, or lack of personal freedom. Many emigrants were willing to put their lives on the line to try and guarantee that their descendants, both literal and those who came after would be governed by the people and not have their basic human rights shoved about by autocratic rulers. It isn't "protestantism" vs. "Catholicism." I don't see how you can be a responsible member of a group, if you can't even be responsible for yourself.
This is a "Get up and do" society, rather than a "sit on your butt and wait for someone else to do it" society. Is any society perfectable? No, but life on earth shouldn't have to be a hell-hole either.
The average American doesn't have to look far to find a family history where their ancestors were deprived of some liberty - or opportunity of betterment. I only have to look at my own family tree. I can look around at my co-workers, some of whom fled Vietnam, or the daughter of a Hungarian refugee. One of my own aunts had some of family stuck behind the iron curtain. My maternal grandmother could not write freely to her niece in Czechoslovakia for fear she would bring trouble into her house.
If an ancestor is willing to fight for your right to freedom, you don't hand over your gun because some gun-grabbing simpering dipwad wants it. Free men and women can own guns. You don't HAVE to have a gun, but I can guarantee you, if enough people do, no irrational government will "get ideas" and try and force the lot of you in concentration camps. To give up guns merely because some schmo like Ted Kennedy wants you to just doesn't justify virtually spitting on the graves of your ancestors. Misuse of a right, doesn't justify taking away that right from everyone.
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6 comments:
Since I'm big into genealogy (another thing folks in other countries don't understand about many in the US, along with guns), I have a long list of ancestors who fought in just about every war in the US imaginable that I display on Memorial Day. If more people these days really understood the reasons many of their ancestors left their homelands and headed this way, they would greatly appreciate their religion and freedoms more than they do.
Personal gun: Glock 9mm
Glad you saw the post, I read your profile and saw you enjoyed genealogy too. My Col. Lindenmuth was also on the western frontier in the French and Indian Wars. Apparently there's a diary of his that was translated, and I've been meaning to get a copy. He writes more about the F&I War, but apparently also talks a lot about his children and grandchildren and also it does have a section on the Rev. War. I have at least two others that I know about in the Rev. war, and remember their last names - but I'm not positive of their first, until I can resurrect the file off my old computer, or reconstruct this. Having been through all this once, I now have most of my dad's side now entered, at least the ancestors, but not all their kids, etc. I think we hit about every war too except the Mexican 1848 War and the Spanish American war. And as far as I know, NONE of them were what would be called "Career." More like a Cincinnatus type deal - your country calls, you do your thing, and you come back into farming, or mining or what have you.
You sure get to dig into a lot of local history when you're looking this stuff up.
My personal gun: Walther PPKshort
Those glocks are neat too. A friend of mine has one, and let me try it out too.
I, too, had many ancestors fighting for this country, unfortunately they also fought against it. The same people.
My folks were the ones who kept switching sides to be on the winning team.
Personal gun:Sig Sauer 9mm
:-D "The mom" - just be glad you weren't around "Back in the Day" when none of them were speaking to each other. It reminds me of John Adam's statement in the musical 1776:
"You cool considerate men, you keep to the rear on every issue so that if we should go under you can remain afloat."
[I bet our British readers are somewhat aghast at 3 US conservative Catholic types all have their own handguns. BTW, at last look orthometer's "caption this picture post" had 57 some odd comments.]
Had to comment again. Read Father Blake's post on this and mentioned it to my husband. My husband said that we should gently remind the good Father that part of the reason we have the Right to Bear Arms is because of, um, the British, or more specifically, King George :)
"... who vowed he'd rule them to the end." From America Rock
BTW: Two other local Twin City female bloggers (Cathy of Alex and Adoro) also have hand guns. So, that's five. Ensuring the British stay on their side of the pond ;}
I wonder if "Fr. Owl" has gone native. Maybe Fr. Erik R. of Utah, or one of our East Coast USA priests could take him on that initial Snipe Hunt.
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